Class 







®tj0 Imilitttg Wt Bshxmtt. 






^^ 







NEW PUBLIC LIBRARY. 

y^HE HANDSOME LIBRARY and 
-* town building, about the dedica- 
tion of which center the events of this 
Old Home PVeek in Tyringham, is con- 
structed of round, lichen-covered Held 
stone and red tile, zvith the interior fin- 
ished in natural zvoods and a huge rustic 
stone chimney. The ground measure- 
ment is j4 X 23 feet, the height a story 
and a half above the basement, the loca- 
tion on the most prominent corner in 
town, with the Hop Brook singing hap- 
pily ^ivay in the rear. Besides the library 
apartments, consisting of one large room, 
an alcove and two spacious galleries, there 
' (1) 



hooks zvere placed in the front room of 
the Baptist parsonage, volunteer libra- 
rians again being obtained; and still later 
in a room in the " Lovig House," owned 
by M. W. Stedman. At present the col- 
lection of books numbers approximately 
1 400. 

The cornerstone of the library building 
was laid zvith appropriate ceremonies 
June JO, ip02, L. B. Moore, chairman of 
the trustees, presiding and making an 
address, Rev. J. W. Morrison offering 
prayer, Richard Watson Gilder, the late 
Robert S. Rudd and the late Rev. Dr. 
Rozvland completing the list of speakers. 
Rev. John Lord pronounced the benedic- 
tion. The list of donors may be found in 
full in the printed tozvn reports for the 
last few years. 

Although as these pages are closed 
there appears reason to believe that the 
library may be dedicated almost if not 
quite free of debt, there remains yet 
abundant opportunity for interested ones 
to aid in roundi-n.g out the good zvork so 
far advanced. The library needs Jur- 
niture; there should be a suitable 
heating apparatus; the land to the rear 
and the south should be purchased, giving 
to the building a free corner bounded by 
the tzvo highzvays and the brook. 



(4) 



(Fgrtngliam: Wih mh Nf m 



BY 



JOHN A. SCOTT, 

Secretary to the Committee. 



I1-3 5? 



V 1^ 



©yriugljam: ©IJn mh N^ui 

By John A. Scott, 
Secretary to the Committee. 



TYRINGHAM, as a town and as in- 
dividuals, extends to you to-day 
a most cordial welcome, kind 
friend — be you former resident, son or 
daughter, grandson or granddaughter 
of one, or simply a neighbor invited in 
to share in the festivities. It is good for 
you to be here; it is good for the present 
inhabitant that you are come. Again, 



welcome 



Now that you are here, what do you 
think of the dear valley? Is it as you 
remember it? As your father or your 
mother or your grandparents led you to 
suspect? If not, it is not surprising. It 
is doubtful if any other corner in the 
old Bay State has seen so many marked 
transitions within the same extent of 
time as this Valley of the Hop Brook. 
In the period of 143 years which has 
elapsed since the incorporation of the 
town, the Hop Brook Valley may be 
said to have passed out of the swamp 
age into the pioneer epoch, then succes- 
sively into the Shaker age, the paper 

(7) 



mill age, the agricultural period, the 
tobacco age and the summer boarder 
epoch. Now, whether for weal or for 
woe, the valley appears to be well ad- 
vanced upon the era of the landed pro- 
prietor — that is, a period in which 
large farms are owned and occupied as 
summer homes by persons having their 
principal interests elsewhere. 

Let us glance back down the decades. 

A VuBt WxlhnntBja. 

It is noticeable that within only thir- 
teen years after the landing of the Pil- 
grims at Plymouth Rock, the whites had 
spread out over the land seeking home- 
steads until the fertile valley of the Con- 
necticut was reached and settled. But 
the steep and rugged hillsides of the 
Berkshires boldly defied the frontiers- 
man. Not once in all that first century 
following the landing is there record of 
a white man's attempting to settle amid 
the well-nigh impenetrable forests that 
clothed our hills. In 1676 a band of 
warriors pursued their red antagonists 
to the very banks of the Housatonic, 
but nearly twenty years later when Ben- 
jamin Wadsworth,not then president of 
Harvard university, crossed on a mission 
to Albany with a guard of soldiers he 

(8) 



described the journey as most frightful 
and returned through Connecticut. 
Berkshire, as it is now constituted, was 
in fact the last county in the state to be 
settled. The territory was originally a 
part of " Old Hampshire" county which 
latter was still further divided into 
Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden in 
1811-12. Berkshire county was incor- 
porated as it now exists in 1761, one 
year only prior to the incorporation of 
Tyringham as a town. The long delay 
in its settlement had probably a three- 
fold cause — its inaccessibleness from 
the other New England settlements; the 
fear of Indian incursions from the north; 
the unpleasant relations with the Dutch 
of New York State, with whom Massa- 
chusetts had more than one matter in 
dispute. 

The settlement of Shefifield and Stock- 
bridge at length made necessary a road 
across the Hoosacs, this eastern range 
of the Berkshires, and it was deemed 
that the most feasible route lay through 
the present town of Otis, to Great Bar- 
rington or Sheffield, passing the ponds 
now known as Lakes Garfield and Buel. 
This road from Westfield to Sheffield 

(9) 



would also mean direct communication 
between Boston and Albany. Accord- 
ingly on January 15, 1735, the legisla- 
ture ordained that four townships be 
opened along the route, each six miles 
square and containing sixty-three home 
lots, " one of which to be for the first 
settled minister, one for the second 
settled minister, one for each grantee, 
which shall draw equal shares in all fu- 
ture divisions." The grantees were to 
receive their land in consideration for 
the work expended in opening the road. 
The land was purchased from the Stock- 
bridge Indians by Cols. Ephraim Wil- 
liams and Nahum Wood and the town- 
ships were at first known as Housatonic 
townships Nos. i, 2, 3 and 4, subse- 
quently becoming Tyringham, New 
Marlborough, Sandisfield and Becket, 
respectively. In general the lines of 

No. I embraced the territory now 
known as Monterey and Tyringham. 
Later the town was granted a handsome 
equivalent for the acreage deemed to 
have been lost to it through Lakes 
Garfield and Buel and again when the 
survey of the town of Lee cut off a big 
slice on the northwest. The tract com- 

(10) 



monly known as the " Tyringham 
Equivalent " soon became the town of 
Louden, now known as Otis, and in 1811 
a part of Tyringham was annexed to 
New Marlborough. In 1812 a part of 
New Marlborough was annexed to 
Tyringham and various other altera- 
tions in the bounds occurred prior to 
the historic division of the township in 
1847, v/hen " South Tyringham " be- 
came the town of A/[onterey. At the 
time of its greatest size, Tyringham is 
said to have contained 4,800 acres of 
land in addition to the original six miles 
square. The number of proprietors was 
also raised to seventy. William Chand- 
ler made a survey of the town in 1736. 
It was the original intention that the 
west line should *' run north so as to 
strike the south bank of the Housatonic 
after it makes the great bend to the west 
in Lee." Had this been done the shape 
of the present town would doubtless be 
on more natural lines to-day than is the 
case. 

Mr. Edwin Brewer, writing in 1829, 
says the town " was divided into twenty- 
one portions by lines running from 
northwest to southeast, half a mile from 
each other, from the southwest to the 
northeast corner. House lots, from 



(11) 



forty to eighty acres each, were laid out 
on the six portions next to the six 
southwestern, contiguous to each other, 
abutting on the Hues crossing the town- 
ship. House lot No. 25 was set apart 
for the first clergyman. No. 21 for the 
second, No. 20 for schools and sixty- 
seven were drawn by lot against the 
names of the proprietors. Four of the 
proprietors were clergymen, and drew 
the following lots, viz.: Rev. William 
Williams of Weston, No. 38, since occu- 
pied by Daniel Garfield; Rev. John Cot- 
ton of Boston, No. i, on which the first 
and second churches were built; Rev. 
Warham Williams of Waltham, No. 70, 
now occupied by Jonas Brewer, and 
Rev. Jonathan Townsend of Needham, 
No. 58, now occupied by their descend- 
ants. The drawing began November 15, 

1737, and was completed February 28, 

1738. The other parts of the township, 
excepting that one lot of seventy acres 
was reserved for mills, were divided into 
larger lots, called town lots, and drawn 
against the number of the house lots. 
The town lots were 271 and the whole 
number of lots 342, besides the prior 
grants already named." 



(12) 



There are reasons to believe that 
Samuel Winchell may have lived in the 
vicinity as early as 1735, but the first 
recorded settlement in the township oc- 
curred in April, 1739, when Lieut. Isaac 
Garfield and Thomas Slaton moved 
upon lot No. I. The descendants of the 
former have been many and have left 
their imprint on both sections of the 
town. Isaac Garfield, Jr., was the first 
child born in No. i. Garfield and Slaton 
were speedily joined by John Chadwick, 
Esq., and the following August Capt. 
John Brewer from Hopkinton erected 
a house a little south of Lake Garfield 
(which water for quite a century bore 
his name) and, in accordance with his 
contract with the proprietors, at once 
began the erection and operation of 
mills. Although there were never any 
serious Indian incursions made into 
southern Berkshire, Captain Brewer's 
house was one of a number fortified 
during the French war which began in 
1744. A.mong the soldiers garrisoned 
there by the provincial government was 
Williani Hale, who later married a 
daughter of Captain Brewer's, became a 
settler and a deacon of the church. 
From him have descended another 
family still prominent in town affairs. 

(13) 



The settlement of Township No. i 
progressed but slowly until the passing 
and repassing of troops through it in 
the French war began to draw attention 
to its many advantages. Up to 1750 
township affairs were administered from 
the eastern part of the State, but in that 
year the proprietors began to meet reg- 
ularly on the ground. Still it was not 
until 1762 that the town was regularly 
incorporated under a distinctive name. 
According to the early historians the 
name " Tyringham " was suggested by 
Lord Viscount Howe, who passed 
through No. i on his way to give up his 
life at Ticonderoga in battle with the 
French. Howe is said to have owned 
an estate in Tyringham, England. O. C. 
Bidwell, writing in 1885, says the 
name is probably a corruption of Tur- 
ing's-ham, the home of the Turings. 
Rev. C. J. Palmer of Lanesborough, 
more recently, would take the honor for 
the suggestion from Lord Howe and be- 
stow it upon Barnard, governor of Mas- 
sachusetts " at the time Berkshire 
county was settled." A.ccording to this 
writer the English Tyringham was so 
called "from being settled by the Thur- 
ingians, a powerful tribe in Central Ger- 

(14) 



many, from whom the institution of the 
Salic law was in part derived. Thur- 
ingia was so called from being con- 
quered and settled by a tribe bearing the 
name of Durii, who originally came 
from Greece. Durii is an abbreviation 
of Hermanduri, the wife of Orestez, and 
the daughter of Menelaus and Helen, 
concerning whom was waged the cele- 
brated Trojan war." 

The first ofiBcers of the town were 
Capt. John Chadwick, Isaac Garfield and 
Ethan Lewis, selectmen; Benjamin 
Warren, town clerk; Capt. John Chad- 
wick, treasurer. 

The original " center " of the town, 
singularly enough, was neither the pres- 
ent hamlet of Monterey, nor that of 
Tyringham. The first church was 
erected on house lot No. i, drawn by 
Rev. John Cotton of Boston. The site 
may now best be reached from Tyring- 
ham by turning west from the usual 
Monterey road at the " Morse school 
house." It is near the homestead of S. 
C. Carrington. The construction of the 
edifice was begun in 1743, but the 
French war served to delay its construc- 
tion for so long a period that a tree of 

(15) 



considerable size is reputed to have 
grown within the timbers before the 
roof was laid. In 1796 a second church 
was begun on the same lot, but nearly a 
half mile to the southward. It was 
larger and more ornate. About it grew 
up what is popularly termed the " Old 
Center." Its foundations may still be 
traced a short distance from the Clapp 
boarding house. The first pastor was 
Rev. Adonijah Bidwell. Tlie church, 
which was Congregational in denomina- 
tion, was organized in 1750 with the fol- 
lowing eight members: John Jackson, 
Thomas Orton, William Hale, John 
Chadwick, Ephraim Thomas, Jabez 
Davis, David Everest and Adonijah 
Bidwell. To these churches for two 
generations went all the Congregation- 
alists of Hop Brook or present Tyring- 
ham, and until 1847 ^^ them were held 
the town meetings and State and na- 
tional elections for the whole township. 

Strictly speaking, the history of the 
present town of Tyringham dates simply 
from the year of the incorporation of the 
whole town — 1762. Up to that year the 
northern portion of Township No. i 
seems to have been regarded as an un- 
healthful, almost an impenetrable swamp. 

(16) 



It is as difficult to-day to imagine the con- 
dition of the Hop Brook valley in that 
early period as it is for the newcomer to 
picture in his mind's eye the present ham- 
let of Tyringham as the bustling mill 
town it was back in the paper-making 
days. When in 1762 Deacon Thomas 
Orton moved over from the center and 
built a log cabin on the site of the present 
" South House " on Fernside property, 
he was, it is said, the very first white 
man to erect a roof in the confines of 
this valley. In every direction as far as 
the eye could reach spread the virgin 
forest. In the bottom of the valley, be- 
neath the trees all was marsh. The 
brooks had no regular channels. Their 
waters spread out in flood time from 
hillside to hillside, and when the flood 
subsided the bottoms drained but 
slowly. Vines — chiefly the wild hop — 
clambered up the trees and laid snares 
for the venturesome explorer. Not 
even the red man lingered there. 

Presently the Royal Hemlock road was 
cut through the forest from the old 
church and past the present Carrington 
homestead, coming out at Jerusalem, in 
the rear of the present Curtin homestead. 

(17) 



Over it Deacon Orton could go to meet- 
ing and over it his friends from the cen- 
ter could come to visit him. The next 
pioneer to make his home in the valley is 
reputed to have been one Davis, who lo- 
cated in the extreme upper end of the 
valley, at Sodom, now so-called. It is 
said that in this gorge quite a settlement 
existed before anyone ventured upon 
making a clearing in the valley bottom. 
When the War of the Revolution broke 
out, however, a beginning had been fairly 
made toward the creation of the beautiful 
meadows as we know them to-day. Dea- 
con William Hale had come over from 
the center and established a home where 
his descendant, Charles H. Hale, to-day 
resides, while Capt. Ezekiel Herrick had 
also made a clearing. Others among the 
early settlers were the Clarks, Heaths, 
Wilsons, Tompsons, Halls and Parkers. 
The sugar maple then as now flour- 
ished in the valley, and tradition has it 
that the friendly Stockbridge Indians 
were accustomed to camp every spring 
upon Camp Brook, flowing through Robb 
de P. Tytus's present AshintuUy Farm, 
catching the sap in birchbark buckets as 
it ran from the trees. The claim has fur- 
ther been made by a local historian that 
in this way and on this spot the white 
man first learned to make maple sugar. 

(18^ 



As the fall of Quebec in 1759 was fol- 
lowed by a considerable influx of in- 
habitants into South Tyringham, so the 
close of the Revolution saw a speedy in- 
vasion of all the recesses of Hop Brook. 
Roads soon ran at frequent intervals over 
every hillside and hilltop, and they were 
lined with homes. Many of the dwellings 
were crude at first, often mere log huts, 
and the furniture was mostly home made. 
When Capt. Thomas Stedman came up 
from Rhode Island in about the last year 
of the eighteenth century he brought his 
wife and child on horseback along a nar- 
row trail and built his house in what was 
then a wilderness and now the so-called 
Webster School District. 

But the outgo from Tyringham almost 
from the very beginning nearly equalled 
when it did not exceed the influx of popu- 
lation. The v/ars, the fertile western 
prairies, the gold excitement, the glamour 
of the great cities, have all in turn exer- 
cised their allurements on the young men 
and even their elders. To-day only stone 
Vv^alls and cellar holes indicate the greater 
portion of the hill settlements. Most of 
the hill farms have become incorporated 
into those of the valley. 



(19) 



The Society of Shakers, or as they 
prefer to be called, " The United So- 
ciety of Believers in Christ's Second 
Appearing," for a hundred years played 
an important part in the life of this val- 
ley, and to their untiring industry is due 
much of the present beauty and produc- 
tiveness of the town. 

The society sprang originally from a 
series of religious revivals which broke 
out on the continent of Europe early in 
the eighteenth century. In 1706 this 
spread to England and about 1747 some 
members of the Society of Quakers 
formed themselves into a society of 
which Jane and James Wardley were the 
leaders. In 1758 they were joined by 
Ann Lee, who was born in Manchester, 
England, February 29, 1736, being one 
of the large family of John Lee, a black- 
smith. Soon Ann became the acknowl- 
edged head of the order. Although her 
followers have since declared her mar- 
riage with one Stanley, a blacksmith, 
to have been her " one great sin," they 
have declared her Jesus Christ de- 
scended to earth in the form of a 
woman. Works sold at the existing 
Shaker communities relate various 
miracles that she is alleged to have 
wrought. 

(20) 



Having, as it is said, been directed by 
the spirits so to do, and also, it may 
be imagined, to escape from persecution, 
" Mother Ann " and several of her order 
set sail for America in 1774. A year or 
so afterward they formed a settlement 
at Watervliet, near Albany, N. Y., and 
there in 1784 Ann gave up the ghost, 
aged forty-five years and six months. 
Before she died, however, several per- 
sons living in the southwestern part of 
Hop Brook began to attend the meet- 
ings of the Shakers who had formed the 
newer settlements of Mt. Lebanon and 
Hancock. In April, 1782, William 
Clarke, Henry Herrick, Elijah Fay and 
Joshua, Abel and William Allen, who 
had but recently arrived in town from 
Coventry, Conn., set up Shaker meet- 
ings at one another's houses. Two 
years later they were joined by Abisha 
Stanley, James Pratt and Thomas Pat- 
ten from Belchertown. In 1792 they 
united their farms and all other property 

into one com.munity of ovx^nership, de- 
serted most of their houses and formed 
a village of which the present " Fern- 
side " is the outgrowth. Within thirty- 
five years this little society increased to 
about one hundred members, owned 

(21) 



some 1,500 acres of land, possessed two 
settlements three-quarters of a mile 
apart, containing an office, a school 
house, four dwelling houses, various 
shops and outhouses, a pocket furnace 
and a saw mill. 

Until 1858 the society continued to 
prosper. The present fine dwellings at 
Fernside were constructed — in one was 
the community dining room and kit- 
chen; another was the '' church house." 
The largest of all was for the drying and 
packing of the garden and flower seeds 
which brought so many dollars into the 
common fund. There were fewer par- 
titions in those days in church and seed 
house ; in the latter a freight elevator ran 
from basement to cupola and only a few 
years ago was still to be seen there the 
printing press which turned out the 
thousands of seed labels. In the tool 
shop not only were horses and oxen 
shod, but stoves and nails and nearly all 
other articles of iron needed in the set- 

^^If-i'itBtmmttg (Unmmumtg. 

tlement were produced. On the site of 
the first house ever built in Hop Brook 
was erected the fine building now fallen 
into decay and known as the South 
House. The stream that feeds the 
Shaker Bowl turned several Shaker 

(22) 



shops and the outlet of the bowl ran a 
Shaker saw. 

Northward through the great maple 
sugar orchard was the North Family 
settlement. All that remains of it to-day 
is the front half of Mrs. M. F. Hazen's 
" Nokomis Lodge " and the four-story 
red shop in the hollow of the hill on the 
same property. In the old days there 
were four dwellings closely grouped, an 
imposing array of barns and sheep-folds, 
while the little stream that turned the 
saws and lathes of the " red shop," also 
worked other shops above. The com- 
munity land had increased to between 
2,000 and 3,000 acres and practically 
every square foot was made to yield a 
return. Every Shaker — man, woman 
and child — was busily employed and 
" world's people " were hired in consid- 
erable numbers to assist in the harvests 
and in the permanent improvements. 

Holding marriage in abhorrence, 
only by constant recruiting from the 
Gentiles could the Shakers hope to per- 
petuate their communities, and this 
proved to be impossible. Even the 
children taken in as infants, when they 
came to years of discretion, showed a 
tendency to desert. In 1858 the Tyring- 
ham community lost twenty-three mem- 
bers at one time and by 1874 the mem- 

(28) 



bership had dwindled to a mere handful. 
The land was then broken up, the main 
village and i,ooo acres sold to Dr. 
Joseph Jones for a summer resort, while 
the members divided, some joining the 
community at Hancock (West Pittsfield) 
and others that at Enfield, Conn. The 
only one of this number now living is 
Sister Elizabeth Thornber at Hancock, 
although a number of persons survive 
who were at one time Tyringham Shak- 
ers, or lived as children in their 
community. 

The Shakers were above all things 
spiritualists, and the Holy Ground , or 
Mt. Horeb, formed an interesting feat- 
ure in their religious rites. Its bare 
summit, now a part of the Nokomis 
Lodge property, rises to a height 1406 
feet above the sea or some 200 feet 
above the '' church family " settlement. 
To it young and old were wont to as- 
cend periodically, keeping time to the 
so-called " Shaker shuffle." A consider- 
able area of the summit was carefully 
fenced and within were rude seats of 
wood for the faithful. There was also 
a white marble slab as a monument to 
Mother Ann. It is said that the true 

(24) 



Shaker believed there was an invisible 
tabernacle on this bare hill, in the midst 
of a most beautiful garden in which all 
manner of tropical and other fruits 
grew in abundance. 

Much of the land the Shakers tilled 
has already reverted to the forest; many 
of their buildings have been transformed 
or demolished; their orchards are fall- 
ing into decay, their quaint furniture 
has been scattered far and wide; to-day 
perhaps the ponderous walls of stone 
scattered over their former proud do- 
main best attest to their presence here. 
In a little graveyard at Fernside ninety 
and nine lie buried. 

The town was deeply interested in the 
Revolutionary War. Ezekiel Herrick, 
who was one of the first to make a 
clearing in the Hop Brook valley, with 
Giles Jackson and Benjamin Warner 
represented the town in the county con- 
gress of 1774, which declared loyalty to 
King George, but rebellion to his parlia- 
ment. Jackson was later a member of 
the first and third provincial congresses. 
Noah Allen was a captain and Samuel 
Brewer an adjutant in Colonel Fellows' 
Berkshire regiment at the battle of 

(25) 



Bunker Hill, in which it acted as a sort 
of rear guard to those more actively 
engaged. After the fight at Ticonder- 
oga, Brewer became a colonel. In the 
entire war the town lost three men — 
Nathan Hale, Daniel Markham, Na- 
thaniel (or Solomon?) Culver. Hale 
was killed by a grape shot at Bemis 
Heights, October 7, 1777. Tyringham 
contributed ten men to the Continental 
army, and in the militia most of her men 
appear to have been enrolled. On page 
210 of Beers' History of Berkshire 
County is a list of 153 Tyringham men 
enrolled at one time or another during 
the war. 

No fighting in any of the wars oc- 
curred within the present or former 
limits of the town, and, despite various 
recently published statements to the 
contrary, there is no evidence that 
bodies of armed troops passed through 
Hop Brook. It was over the " great 
road," leading across the Hoosacs, and 
passing through the " Old Center," that 
General Amherst took his troops and 
stores, and a portion of General Bur- 
goyne's captured army was led. 

The first church edifice to be erected 
in Hop Brook was begun by the Con- 

(26) 



gregationalists on Cemetery hill, south 
of the present Methodist church, in 1797. 
It was the outcome of the change of 
location of the " center " meeting-house 
when in 1796 the second edifice was 
built, the new location being nearly a 
mile farther from Hop Brook than the 
old. The valley Congregationalists, 
however, could only erect the shell of a 
church, the interior not being finished 
ofT for many years, or until the Baptists, 
who had come in from Rhode Island, 
united with the Congregationalists for 
a Union church. The annual '* May 
training " of the militia was held close 
to this first church. On one of these 
occasions the building was damaged by 
the bursting of an old cannon, when 
Silas Ward was killed, Lyman Webster 
had some ribs broken and others were 
less seriously injured. 

The Baptist Church of Lee and Ty- 
ringham was formed August 22, 1827, 
with tw^enty members, seven males and 
thirteen females. In 1844 a distinctively 
Baptist meeting-house was erected. 
This was destroyed by fire Thanksgiving 
day, 1873, when the present edifice was 
erected on the same site. The success- 
es?) 



ive preachers have been: Rev. Messrs. 
Ira Hall, Isaac Child, Alexander Bush, 
George Phippen, O. H. Capron, David 
Avery, Foster Henry, Addison Brown, 
J. V. Ambler, Edwin Bromley, E. W. 
Pray, William Goodwin, Walter Chase, 
M. P. Favor, A. M. Higgins (supply), 
John D. Pope, George Colesworthy, J. 
H. Bigger, E. N. C. Barnes, V. H. 
Lindsley, W. F. Chase, W. P. Bartlett. 

The late Daniel Clark was authority 
for the statement that there was Meth- 
odist preaching in Hop Brook as early 
as 1791, Robert Green being the 
preacher. In 1825 the Reformed Meth- 
odists built a meeting-house, 36x26, 
near where the dwelling of Charles H. 
Hale now stands. It stood for eighteen 
years; was then sold to Hiram Clark, 
who made a dwelling of it near the 
present Methodist church. In 1840 
Tyringham became a station of the 
Methodist Episcopal church, and began 
to receive ministers regularly. In 1844 
the present church was erected, at a 
cost of $6,000. The following have 
been the successive ministers: Rev. 
Messrs. Howe, Wakely, Ferguson, Van 
Deusen, Bullock, Sparks, Albert Nash, 

(28) 



Andrus, Hiscox, Keeler, Lent, Grenville 
E. Kerr, Champion, Dickinson, Bates, 
Delos Lull, Ketchum, Alexander 
McLane, Collins, Corey, Wood, Thomas 
Elliott, Charles B. Landon, William A. 
Mackey, Maston, Green, Stickles, O. P. 
Crandall, Fields Hermance, Robert F. 
Elsden, N. L. Heroy, J. W. Sweetman, 
Edwin Trevor, A. B. Woolsey, C. M. 
Preston, A. J. Toles, Wray, J. W. Gorse, 
J. D. Eckert, J. H. Lane, E. Cornell, 
J. S. Lull, J. W. Morrison, J. T. Hoyle, 
W. J. Gritman, James Lord, L. G. 
Spooner, William H. Peters. 

To paraphrase Tennyson, factories 
may come and factories may go, but 
rake-making- in Tyringham goes on 
forever. The valley has heard the hum 
of much and varied machinery from the 
day the first saw and grist mills were 
started within its confines. Almost 
every brooklet leading into Hop Brook 
itself has at one time or another turned 
a wheel. At one period Sodom con- 
tained grist, saw, rake and cotton mills. 
There were the numerous Shaker shops. 
Once there was a spool factory on Hop 
Brook, just across the iron bridge from 
the new library building. Immediately 

(29) 



over the brook from the Hbrary a rake 
factory stood for a while. There is a 
tradition of a furniture factory where 
stands to-day the Downses' saw-mill. 
And overshadowing all was the reign of 
the papermakers. 

To-day not a mill remains save the 
rake factories, with the saw-mills at- 
tached to them. For three generations 
a single family has been converting the 
trees of the valley into hand rakes and 
distributing the latter among the farm- 
ers and gardeners of the Atlantic sea- 
board. William Stedman established 
the business at Sodom, where his 
mill still stands. There it was con- 
tinued by his son Martin. To-day the 
latter's son, Marshall W. Stedman, 
operates a mill at the " new center " that 
would have made his grandfather rub 
his eyes — lighted by electricity, run by 
steam when water is low, and generally 
conducted on modern principles. But 
in the mill is still in use a little machine 
invented by the original Stedman, which 
has yet to be improved upon. It is the 
first machine ever used for the turning 
out of rake teeth, which were previously 
made by hand. 

Other doughty rake-makers there 
have been — among them James L. 
Breckinridge, who has been followed in 

(30) 



turn by George W. Oles and the present 
Downs family; Daniel McCollum, followed 
by John C. Garfield, and the latter's son, 
Dighton M. Garfield. In the old days 
the rakes were loaded upon wagons and 
peddled down through Connecticut, up 
into Vermont and west even across the 
Hudson river. To-day they are shipped 
by rail to retailers and wholesalers, 
often at ten times the former distances. 

It was in the era of the papermakers 
that Hop Brook presented a scene of 
greatest activity. The hills rang with 
the axes felling firewood, wagons rattled 
down into the vale with the product, 
tall chimneys belched black or yellow 
smoke, springs far back were tapped by 
wooden pipes for clear water to use in 
the paper itself; there was the song of 
the machinery, the laughter of the mill- 
hands. At least half the housewives in 
town boarded one or two or even twenty 
of the employees; wagons brought in 
rags from the railroad, and carried back 
the finished product; the local stores did 
a thriving business; the Lee stage ran 
weighted down with passengers at every 
trip; Sunday mornings the road was 
lined with men and women trudging 
into Lee to mass. 

(31) 



The famous Turkey mill was erected 
on the site of the present Stedman rake 
factory in 1832 by Riley Sweet and Asa 
Judd, under the firm name of Sweet & 
Judd. It was started as a hand mill, 
making one sheet at a time on a wire 
mould, but soon it had two engines, a 
cylinder machine and made about 400 
pounds of paper a day. Jared Ingersoll 
and George W. Platner bought the mill 
in 1833, and in 1835 Elizur Smith 
(founder of the present Smith Paper Co. 
of Lee) took an interest, the firm be- 
coming Ingersoll, Platner & Smith. Mr. 
Ingersoll, however, soon sold out to his 
partners, and the mill remained Platner 
& Smith's until the former's death in 
1855. I^ i<^49 they introduced the first 
Fourdrinier machine used in this coun- 
try, and began m.aking water-marked, 
first-class paper. Soon they attained 
the reputation of making the best writ- 
ing paper in the United States. By 1855 
the mill had been enlarged and fitted 
with seven engines. Mr. Smith, how- 
ever, withdrew his business to the rail- 
road, and in 1869 ^^^ ^^^ was rented to 
Watkins & Cassiday. Within a short 
time it burned. George W. Canon in 
1872 erected a three-engine mill on the 

(32) 



same spot, and he was succeeded in 
ownership by Robert Slee, of Pough- 
keepsie, but the new mill was never a 
success. The building is now in service 
as a rake factory. 

lag ^tat^ Mill 

The tall brick chimney now standing 
to the west of the main street, a short 
distance north of the new library, 
marks the site of the Bay State paper 
mill, which was built in 1846 by Ezra 
Heath and Joshua Boss, who sold out 
to S. C. Johnson & Co. at the end of 
two years. After another two years it 
burned. In 185 1 it was rebuilt by 
George W. and John T. West; run one 
year; sold to J. W. Sweet and John M. 
Northrop; run one year; purchased by 
George W. West, and managed success- 
fully until 1866, when he sold to John 
Trimble. The building was burned in 
1871 and was never rebuilt. 

Bigmtari^B of tift Past. 

When the town was divided in 1847 
the government remained with the name 
and there was no interruption in it in 
so far as the Hop Brook district was 
concerned. But those town officers re- 
siding within the limits of Monterey of 

(33) 



course resigned and they were sup- 
planted by citizens of present Tyring- 
ham. After these changes Charles H. 
Fargo remained town clerk; the board 
of selectmen comprised Ezra Heath, Eli 
G. Hale and Daniel McCollum; Jerome 
Crittenden, Jabez H. Downs and Dr. 
George Phillips, school committee; Ira 
Van Bergen, treasurer. John W. Sweet 
was moderator of the town meeting 
which filled the vacancies. In 1849 
Riley Judd succeeded to the town clerk- 
ship, being followed in 1854 by Albert 
C. Heath; in i860 by J. W. Wilson; in 
1865 by A. C. Heath; in 1866 by T. D. 
Holmes; in 1867 by George W. Garfield; 
in 1904 by George R. Warren, the 
incumbent. 

Beginning in 1848 the following held 
office as first selectmen for one year 
each and in this order: Ezra Heath, 2d, 
Solomon Garfield, John W. Sweet, E. 
G.Tyrrell, Solomon Garfield, E. G. Hale, 
Daniel Heath, Solomon Garfield, John 
W. Sweet, Solomon Garfield, E. G. 
Hale, T. D. Thatcher, Henderson Ward. 
This brings us down to i860. Then for 
four years E. G. Hale held sway, except 
only in 1863, when J. M. Garfield was 
chosen. In 1866 Henderson Ward be- 
gan an uninterrupted term of seven 
years. In 1873 E. G. Hale began a 

( 34) 



term of eight years, but this was broken 
by the one year of John Cannon, Jr., in 
1877. D. M. Garfield served in 1881 
and '82; J. W. Sweet (the present), from 
1883 to '86, inclusive; C. H. Hale, in 
1887; J. W. Sweet, in 1888; C. H. Hale, 
from 1889 to 1895, inclusive; J. W. 
Sweet, from 1896 to 1902, inclusive, and 
Nathan Canon brings us down to date. 

Prior to 1857 each town in the State 
was entitled to a representative in the 
general court. Among those who 
served from Hop Brook before the 
separation were Ezekiel Herrick, Solo- 
mon Garfield, Eli G. Hale and Ezra 
Heath, 2d. Following 1847 the repre- 
sentatives from Tyringham have been 
successively: John Branning, Nathan 
Rowley, John Branning, Ezra Heath, 
Ebenezer Beers, Eldridge B. Tyrrell, 
John Canon, John M. Northrop, John 
M. Garfield," Charles E. Slater, 
Charles H. Hale, Edward H. Slater, the 
incumbent. 

The town has never been represented 
in the State Senate or in Congress fol- 
lowing the adoption of the United States 
Constitution. At least one native and 
resident of Tyringham has, however, 
attained a national and perhaps an inter- 
national reputation — the late Daniel 
Clark, whose remarkable geological col- 

(35) 



lection has drawn many noted savants 
to the house at the head of the valley, 
where the minerals and other rare speci- 
mens are still to be seen. 

3(tt tly^ (Hiotl Wbv. 

The town of Tyringham met all de- 
mands upon it in the War of the Rebel- 
lion, spending $6960 in money, aside 
from $1681.51 expended as State aid, 
and raising a full quota of men. George 
H. Sweet, who enlisted in October, 
1862, at the age of nineteen, became a 
second lieutenant in Company F, Forty- 
ninth Massachusetts. Other Tyringham 
men who enlisted were Hamlin F. 
Clark, Hiram Young, Thomas H. 
Vedetto, George L. Barnes, Alfred S. 
Bigelow, Horace W. Blake, Karl Cur- 
tin, Henry J. Gardner, Addison B. 
Heath, Franklin Heath, Thomas Ma- 
loney, Edward W. Ste dman, Harlow 
A. Wheelock, Scott W. Wilson, James 
S. Young, Wilbur F. Anthony, Gershom 
W. Fielding, Theodore D. Holmes, Gil- 
bert B. Ingraham, Henry Johnson, 
William J. King, George Tichnor, 
Charles Blakesley, James M. McGin- 
ness, John Waters, William T. Taylor, 
Amos Williams, James Butler, Coleman 
Finegan. 

(36) 



Sattbnm Notra. 



The first schoolhonse erected in Hop 
Brook stood a half-mile south of the 
present Methodist church. In 1883 the 
town employed nine female teachers 
and there was an attendance of ninety- 
seven children. In 1904-5 there were 
but two teachers employed and the high- 
est total enrollment for any one term 
was twenty-nine pupils. The Ty ring- 
ham post-ofiftce was established in 1820. 
In 1828, when Josiah C. Robinson was 
postmaster, the net receipts from post- 
age for the entire year were $25.77. 
Toward the end of the last century the 
late Henry Cone projected a steam rail- 
road through the valley, intended to 
pass along the wall of the eastern moun- 
tain somewhat above the village. A 
portion of this road was actually built 
from the Poughkeepsie bridge east- 
ward, but Mr. Cone's resources gave 
out. Prior to this, when the Boston and 
Albany railroad was being planned, 
Tyringham for a while seemed to stand 
a chance of being one of its stations. 
The town, however, was divided in its 
sentiments, and in no condition to off- 
set the inducements offered by Pittsfield. 



(37) 



The conversion of the chief Shaker 
settlement into a place for summer 
boarders first drew into the valley pleas- 
ure seekers other than those who had 
been accustomed to make the famihar 
round of the valley in carriages from 
Lenox to Stockbridge. Riverside Farm 
subsequently entertained many distin- 
guished guests, including an ex-presi- 
dent of the United States, and other 
farm-houses threw open their doors to 
the city boarders. With the exception of 
Fernside (the Shaker settlement) these 
little summer hostelries still continue 
the business, but year by year the town 
is drawing the permanent summer resi- 
dent. The beginning was made in the 
autumn of 1889, when Mrs. M. F. 
Hazen, of New York city, purchased 
the farm of the " north family " Shakers 
and made over one of the houses to suit 
her needs. A few years later Richard 
Watson Gilder, editor of the Century 
Magazine, bought the Battle, or Sweet, 
farm on the outskirts of the village and 
instituted substantial improvements. 
Subsequent and successive purchasers 
have been the late Robert S. Rudd, the 
New York attorney, whose estate still 
holds Fernside; Hon. Francis E. Leupp, 

(38) 



now Commissioner of Indian Affairs; 
H. C. Fordham, the editor; Robb de P. 
Tytus, the Egyptologist; Mrs. E. B. 
Andrews, George Tiffany, Brooklyn at- 
torney. One of these purchases con- 
solidated four large farms, another 
united two. On four of the places boss 
farmers are employed and many hands 
kept at work. 




QJ^rtnglfam (Ulironalogg. 



Pilgrims land at Plymouth Rock . . , 1620 

Connecticut Valley settled 1633 

Springfield settled 1636 

Military incursion of Whites into Berkshire 1676 

First settlement in Berkshire at Sheffield 1725 

Stockbridge settled 1735 

First settlement at South Tyringham (now 

Monterey) 1739 

French and Indian War .... 1744 to 1759 
Jonathan Edwards in Stockbridge 1751 to 1758 

First Settlement in Lee 1760 

First Settlement in North Tyringham or 

Hop Brook 1762 

Town of Tyringham incorporated (including 

what is now Tyringham and Monterey) 1762 

Organization of Tyringham Shakers . . 1782 

Tyringham Baptists organize .... 1827 

Building of "Turkey" Paper Mill . . . 1832 

Tyringham Methodists organize . . . 1844 

Separation of Monterey from Tyringham . 1847 

Disbandment of Tyringham Shakers . . 1874 

Cornerstone of Library laid 1902 

Dedication of Library 1905 

(40) 



^tUBiXB 3x^ixnB nf tlj? Samn. 



Prior 



After 



PERIOD. 


TEAR, 


POPULA- 
CBNeUB. TION. 


to separation, 


1765 


Provincial, 


326 


♦' " 


1776 


(( 


809 


(< (( 


1790 


United States 


1397 


(< (( 


1800 


" 


1712 


(( (4 


1810 


(< 


1689 


<( i( 


1820 


♦' 


1443 


<< (( 


1830 


t* 


1350 


(( <( 


1840 


(( 


1477 


Separation 


1850 


(t 


821 




(( 


1855 


State 


710 




It 


1860 


United States 


730 




K 


1865 


State 


650 




(< 


1870 


United States 


557 




" 


1875 


State 


517 




t 


1880 


United States 


542 




( 


1885 


State 


457 




< 


1890 


United States 


412 




« 


1895 


State 


363 




( 


1900 


United States 


386 




( 


1905 


State 


314 



(41) 



A Slyumr of ©gringlimn. 



Down in the meadow and up on the height 
The breezes are blowing the willows white. 
In the elms and maples the robins call, 
And the great black crow sails over all 

In Tyringham, Tyringhara Valley. 

The river winds through the trees and the brake 
And the meadow-grass hke a shining snake ; 
And low in the summer and loud in the spring 
The rapids and reaches murmur and sing 
In Tyringham, Tyringham Valley. 

In the shadowy pools the trout are shy, 
So creep to the bank and cast the fly ! 
What thrills and tremors the tense cords stir 
When the trout it strikes with a tug and whir 
In Tyringham, Tyringham Valley! 

At dark of the day the mist spreads white. 

Like a magic lake in the glimmering light ; 

Or the winds from the meadow the white mists 

blow. 
And the fireflies glitter, — a sky below, — 
In Tyringham, Tyringham Valley. 

— Richard Watson Gilder. 



(42) 



(^ih ^amt Wt^k (Bammintt, 



ls,xfttit\xit (HtmrnxtUti 

President — Robb de P. Tytus. 
Treasurer — I. B. Tikker. 
Secretary — John A. Scott. 

Nathan Canon. 

L. B. Moore. 

E. H. Slater. 

<6ttttrni (Eanxmitttt t 

Selectmen — Nathan Canon, Chairman; 
W. H. Hale, I. B. Tinker. 

Library Trustees— Lt. B. Moore, Chairman; 
Robb de P. Tytus, E. H. Palmer. 

School Trustees — E. H. Slater, Chairman; 
G. F. Kopp, Henry Crittenden. 

Town Clerks George R. Warren; 

Deputy Sheriff, Charles H. Hale; 
Postmaster, E. L. Tinker. 

Summer Residents — Richard Watson Gilder, 
Francis E. Leupp, H. C. Fordham. 

(43) 



Out 



t^i-'C' 



Sun Printing Company, Pittsfleld 



LE I\l '10 



